1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to managing and avoiding conflicts of interest when utilizing a communications network site on which persons in need of certain services can post requests for proposals (RFPs) from service providers for the provision of the services required. More specifically, the present invention pertains to a method and apparatus for allowing persons with legal-related needs and legal service providers to list entities with which they have similar and adversarial interest. These entities can then be cross checked against one another to determine if any conflict of interest issues are present.
2. Description of the Related Art
As ever-increasing numbers of computer users secure access to the Internet, a wide variety of new and existing business enterprises are likewise in increasing numbers establishing their own web sites to expand their own business opportunities. In its extant evolving form, perhaps the most significant advantage of the Internet is one's ability to reach large numbers of people at a relatively low cost.
In its infancy, the “first wave” of commerce on the Internet consisted of simple marketing/promotion sites. Today, several types of web sites exist which offer things such as computer hardware and software, books, music and the like for sale over the Internet. One can access these sites, select any products they like, and then purchase the same via credit card, typically through an account arrangement with a third party credit verification/validation agency such as Cybercash or Verisign. These sites, essentially entailing simple order-taking, epitomize the “second wave” of business applications.
An ensuing variation of these kinds of sites are “auction” sites, which liquidate surplus electronic equipment inventories (computers, portable video recorders and VCRs, CD players, etc.) and other items either by bid (such as EBay and Onsale), where again the actual credit transactions are typically processed via third party arrangements with the purchaser's credit card being charged for the goods and any associated handling charges, and the goods then shipped to the purchaser, or by barter (such as FastParts); similar sites entail specialized collectibles (such as eworldauction.com) and commodities (such as energymarket.com). Many of these other types of sites either utilize other types of payment arrangements, such as separate escrow account arrangements, or effect transactions only if the buyer and seller reach acceptable terms of payment.
As compared to goods, services can be more difficult to sell over the Internet. When one purchases a brand-name computer or CD over the Internet, they do so with the expectation that the quality of those products will be same as the counterparts they could have purchased at a local retailer. This same element of relative confidence is characteristic of the existing web sites which serve as an open market for the provision of services by competing service providers, because those services are by their very nature comparatively generic and commodity-like, such as airline tickets/service (e.g., priceline.com), long-distance service blocks (e.g., arbinet.com) and shipping/freight services (e.g., The Internet Truckstop).
However, in other instances, no two service providers ordinarily provide the same level of service for a given task or project, and both the quality of those services provided and the price charged for those services can vary widely. These divergent elements are particularly characteristic of certain types of professional services, and perhaps most so in the case of many legal services.
Moreover, other elements or characteristics are virtually unique to the provision of most legal services and/or the selection/engagement process between the client and attorney: (i) the avoidance of conflicts of interest; (ii) the establishment and preservation of the attorney-client privilege; and (iii) the plain desire of clients in many instances to not have their business or legal needs broadcast to their opponents or competitors, or interested or casual observers, or strangers.
Also, due to the differentiation in the laws and rules of procedure as among the various states (and countries), and the corresponding certification, regulation and licensing of attorneys by each of those sovereigns' judicial systems, most lawyers are licensed to practice in only one state (or country), and those licensed to practice in two or more are the exception; of course, particularly in the last quarter century, a number of large law firms have dealt with this dilemma by establishing offices in different states (and/or countries) to extend their ability to serve their clients, particularly in other major centers of commerce or government, with attorneys licensed to practice in those areas, but even today not a single law firm has a truly nationwide (much less global) practice.
Conversely, in the same last quarter century, a broad array of businesses in increasing numbers have extended their substantive operations both nationwide and worldwide through their own internal growth and/or via merger and consolidation; the legal needs of many of those companies, particularly in terms of dealing with any litigation arising in these extended spheres of operation, have likewise expanded both geographically and geometrically.
Yet companies today essentially still have only the traditional means and methods of selecting counsel to service their expanding needs: either utilizing existing counsel to service those needs, or selecting other counsel based on recommendations or referrals by their existing counsel or selecting other counsel based on word-of-mouth via their peers, or on general reputation and/or recent publicity. By their very nature, these existing methods are inherently narrow in terms of the scope of choice attained in comparison to the universe of the potential providers of such services.
And while the comparatively recent advent of lawyer and law firm advertising has served to at least somewhat expand the scope of choice between providers of legal services in some areas of practice, that advertising is most suited for, and therefore most typically oriented to, either high volume applications (e.g., divorce cases, workers compensation claims, individual bankruptcies, traffic tickets) or prospective high-dollar tort claims, and is only rarely utilized to promote a lawyer's or firm's availability and expertise regarding general business applications. Moreover, advertising itself does nothing to further facilitate, enhance or expedite the traditional means or processes of selection described above.
The present invention utilizes a computer-based communications network to provide client users the opportunity to significantly expand their scope of choice as between prospective providers of services to meet their particular needs, and to acquire significant comparative data regarding both pricing and strategic resource availability in comparative terms based on their own delineated criteria, while incorporating appropriate mechanisms and protocols to identify and avoid conflicts of interest, and to maintain client confidentiality if and as needed or desired. As significantly, it enables subscribing legal service providers to become aware of potential clients in need of specific services which they may (or may not) be in a position to provide, via a mechanism which has not heretofore existed and which serves to enhance and complement the traditional means and methods by which providers of these services have been selected in the past. The present invention will serve to substantively automate, enhance and expedite the underlying processes facilitating the selection of a service provider based on the customized specifications of the client.
It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide an Internet (or other advanced communications network) site which allows persons and companies to broadcast their specific legal/legal-related needs by listing requests for proposals (RFPs).
It is yet another object of the present invention to otherwise limit the access to the client listings on said site to licensed attorneys, law firms and certain other professionals in legal-related areas (i.e., those persons generally obligated to adhere to the tenets of client confidentiality), and to require by subscription agreement that those who seek, and are afforded access to any given listing will maintain the confidentiality of any material information they acquire by virtue of same as they would with any like information acquired in the course of considering any prospective engagement.
It is yet another object of the present invention for the site to allow such persons and companies posting RFPs to limit access to same to only those attorneys or law firms they specify by name, or to deselect certain subscriber attorneys or law firms which either have existing identifiable conflicts of interest or who the listing party does not otherwise desire to have access to such listing (such as a former service provider with whom they have previously severed ties), or by geographic area and/or substantive area of practice.
It is yet another object of the present invention for the site to allow the attorneys or law firms (or other legal-related professionals) as are accorded access to any given RFP listings to submit proposals to provide the requested legal services should they choose to do so.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide mechanisms to identify and avert actual or potential conflicts of interest before an engagement occurs.